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The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Renaissance Lutes

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    The term lute is used to describe a family of stringed instruments having a resonator body, a long or short neck, and strings positioned parallel to the soundboard. For instance, mandolins, guitars, and bowed instruments, like violins and cellos, would fall under this classification. One hand is used to stop the strings against frets tied to the neck to create different pitches, while the other hand plucks the strings.


    Lutes are generally thought to have originated in Mesopotamia around 2000 B.C., from which they traveled both west to Europe and east to Asia. Visual representations in ancient art show long-necked lutes with bodies fashioned from gourds or turtle shells, covered by a hide top. The neck is attached to the body by "stitching" it through pierced areas in the hide. Short-necked lutes constructed of wood with bodies tapering into a neck and fingerboard probably originated at a later date in South Asia and Iran, spreading east to China and Japan.

    The European instrument known as the lute first appeared in the thirteenth century, deriving its name from the Arabic instrument, al-'ud, which translates as "wood." Like the 'ud, European lutes have a pear or teardrop shape, a rounded back, a fretted neck (tied frets of gut), and a bent-back pegbox. The elaborate designs of carved geometric rosettes in the top of the instrument recall their Islamic origin. Medieval lutes usually were plucked with a plectrum or a long quill; however, by the fifteenth century, players abandoned the quill in favor of the fingers.

    Lutes were a popular instrument during the Renaissance. A solo player could provide melody, chords, and even counterpoint. Accompanying a singer, the lutenist could play chords or the additional vocal lines; for example, Italian madrigals were frequently performed by a soloist, with the rest of the vocal lines transcribed for lute. The young musician in the Titian painting of Venus and the Lute Player (36.29) is probably singing a madrigal and accompanying himself on the lute.

    Rebecca Arkenberg
    Department of Education, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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